Andrew Bonar Law | History Today Andrew Bonar Law Britain Andrew Bonar Law Political Robert Pearce argues that we should get better acquainted with the 'unknown prime minister'. At the funeral of Andrew Bonar Law, in Westminster Abbey on 5 November 1923, Herbert Asquith stated, with a certain satisfaction, that 'the unknown Prime Minister' was being buried by the side of the Unknown Soldier. The phrase has served as epitaph to the man who was prime minister for only 211 days, the shortest tenure in the twentieth century. Yet this dismissive remark should not lead us to underestimate the political importance of Bonar Law or to misunderstand the man. There were some who believed him to be entirely colourless. Lloyd George once relayed a conversation he had with Law, while the two men motored along the Mediterranean coast. When the Welshman praised Mozart, he replied, 'I don't care for music'. When he extolled the beauty of the sea on one side of them and the snow-capped Alpine mountains on the other, the reply came: 'I don't care for scenery'. When he pointed to a group of beautiful women, Law responded that he did not care for women.

Finally, when the exasperated Lloyd George asked, 'Then what the hell do you care for?', Bonar Law replied, 'I like bridge'. Yet this conversation is an example not of Law's dullness but of his dry sense of humour. Certainly he cared for many other things besides bridge. There was chess, and he was also inordinately fond of smoking. In addition, he was a devoted family man. If he often seemed pessimistic, this was an entirely appropriate response to the vicissitudes of life. Born in New Brunswick, in Canada, in September 1858, his mother died when he was only two. At the age of 12, his father remarried and he was taken to live with an aunt in Glasgow. He had escaped the influence of a depressive father, an Ulsterman who was employed as a Presbyterian minister in Canada, and he became happily married in 1891, to Annie Robley. But his wife died in 1909 and during the Great War two of his sons died, within six months of each other. The losses hit him hard.

He soon admitted to being at the end of his tether, and it was probably only a hard regime of work and more work that enabled him to survive. 'Melancholy' became the adjective universally applied to him, but even so he was capable of winning friends, influencing people and even giving witty after-dinner speeches. No one found Bonar Law charismatic - he was too reserved for that - but he was anything but dull. A junior minister, Lord Winterton, soon decided that he was 'a most lovable man in whom one could place complete trust'. A civil servant, J.C.C. Davidson, who was amazed by his powers of industry, judged that he 'misled many people into the belief that he was weak because his manner and voice were so gentle, and his heart so kind'. Conservative colleague Stanley Baldwin described him, publicly, as 'a most lovable, elusive and wistful personality', while privately declaring 'I loved the man'. Clearly Bonar Law had more impressive personal qualities than his political enemies were prepared to admit. But what of his achievements? Tory Leader Bonar Law succeeded Arthur Balfour as leader of the Conservative party in November 1911.

He was not just a new leader but a new type of leader, and his election at the Carlton Club marks a new chapter in the history of the Conservatives. Balfour, the aristocratic representative of 'Hotel Cecil', who had succeeded his uncle, Lord Salisbury, back in 1903, was replaced by a member of the middle classes (a man, noted a disgruntled Tory grandee, who would not even recognise a pheasant, let alone know how to shoot one). It was remarkable, as Robert Blake has written, that such a man - a 'Presbyterian of Canadian origin, who had spent most of his life in business in Glasgow' - was to lead 'the Party of Old England, the Party of the Anglican Church and the country squire, the party of broad acres and hereditary titles'. Bonar Law had attended neither public school nor ancient university. He left Glasgow high school at the age of 16 to take a job in a local bank. A decade later wealthy relatives bought him a partnership in a firm of iron merchants, and under his hard-working and able stewardship the business prospered.

The turning point in his life came in 1900 when, aged 42, he won a hitherto safe Liberal seat in Glasgow in the 'khaki' election. Within 18 months he was made parliamentary secretary at the Board of Trade, and soon he was one of the key figures on the Conservative front bench. Though never openly critical of Balfour's leadership, Law became committed to Joseph Chamberlain's ideas on tariff reform. In 1910 he even agreed to contest a seat in Manchester, the stronghold of free trade in Britain. He lost but gained valuable publicity and the following year, after being returned at a by-election in Bootle, he was elected unanimously to succeed Balfour. His rise had been truly remarkable. Yet there was a large element of luck in this success. The two main candidates for the leadership, Austen Chamberlain (the choice of Central Office) and Walter Long (a Tory squire) were evenly matched, and it was rumoured that the supporters of the loser would not find it easy to work with the victor. Both of these gentlemen therefore gave way in favour of Bonar Law's candidature. Nor was Law's leadership particularly successful in the years leading up to war.

The divisive issue of trading policy still bedevilled the Conservatives. Balfour had done his best to shelve the issue by pledging a referendum to let the people decide, but Bonar Law soon repudiated this. Predictably, the spectre of food taxes worried free-traders within the party, and when Bonar Law began to wobble, implying that such taxes might apply only to particular items, the tariff reformers became alarmed. The party seemed as disunited as ever, until that is Law took a leaf out of Balfour's book and promised in 1913 that no change in tariff policy would be made without another general election. He recognised that there was a far bigger cause to fight for, that of the union between Britain and Ireland. To Bonar Law, the policy of Home Rule for Ireland positively stank. The Liberals were pursuing it only because they were dependent in the House of Commons on Irish Nationalist support; and the results for the Protestants of Ulster would be catastrophic. Furthermore, there was no constitutional way for the Conservatives to block the measure, now that the Parliament Act had removed the absolute veto of the House of Lords. It was an issue on which Law felt remarkably strongly.

He urged that, with the Lords' veto gone, royal assent to a Bill should no longer be a formality. But, in the last resort, he was prepared to endorse the use of force. At Blenheim, in July 1912, he said he could 'imagine no length of resistance to which Ulster can go in which I should not be prepared to support them', and the following year he implied that his party would urge that the army refuse to obey orders to implement home rule. Law acquired the image of an intransigent Ulsterman. Indeed his enemies depicted him as an anti-Catholic bigot. Certainly he was not the latter. He was without religious prejudice, and had his own children brought up by a Catholic nanny. It must also be admitted that his hard-line stance was, at least in part, designed to elicit compromise from the Liberal government. Asquith did agree to talks with Law, conceding the possibility that Ulster might be excluded from a self-governing Ireland. But in 1914 there was deadlock, and Law had contributed to the very real possibility of civil war in Ireland.

Furthermore, Law's concentration on first tariffs and then Ireland meant that the Liberals were able to make all the running on the far more electorally popular issue of social reform. Bonar Law's leadership had not been successful. In 1911-14 he had threatened to resign on average once every six months. That he might have perhaps become prime minister after the election due by 1915 owed more to the weaknesses of his Tory rivals and of the Liberal government than to any outstanding success of his own. The First World War The main significance of Law and the Conservatives during the crisis of July-August 1914 was to stiffen the willingness to fight of Asquith's government. Thereafter it was 'Business as Usual' for the Liberal government - until, that is, shell shortages and Britain's poor performance in the Dardanelles campaign led to a chorus of Tory criticisms. Bonar Law insisted that he would press for a critical debate on the conduct of the war unless a coalition were formed. Asquith duly complied, on 18 May 1915. It was certainly not a coalition of equals.

The Conservatives did poorly out of Asquith's distribution of offices, and Law himself became only Colonial Secretary. Nevertheless, the Tory leader was not without influence. He insisted that Churchill, the architect of the Dardanelles fiasco, be demoted from the Admiralty; and he was the foremost voice in favour of an early evacuation. Nor did Law's influence stop there. His disillusionment with Asquith's leadership led him in 1916 to work with Lloyd George and insist on new executive control. The result was Asquith's resignation. The king called on Bonar Law, the leader of the largest party in the Commons, to form a government; but he, wisely, advised him to make Lloyd George prime minister. Law became Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the second most important figure in the government. His was not an easy role. He had to convince the Conservative backbenchers that they should accept the leadership of the man who, before the war, had been their foremost political enemy. He himself had to work with this man. Normally they would meet together for two hours every morning, often Lloyd George allowing Bonar Law to subject his ideas to detailed scrutiny.

If they survived, he knew they would be able to pass through the cabinet and the Commons. Most important of all, Bonar Law, as Chancellor, had to find the funds to pay for the war. In 1917 he raised the enormous sum of £600 million via a War Loan campaign, and he overruled his officials, and the governor of the Bank of England, by setting interest rates at 5 rather than 6 per cent, thus securing a significant saving to the nation. He borrowed huge sums, but in total he found 26 per cent of wartime expenditure from taxation, more than in any other belligerent country. In November 1918 Lloyd George was vaunted as 'the man who won the war'. But he would not have been appointed as prime minister in the first places without Law's help. He would not have remained premier if Law had not supported him at crucial junctures, as when he sacked 'Wully' Robertson as chief of the general staff in February 1918, to a chorus of disapproval. Finally, his government would not have been nearly so successful without the hard work and ability of second-in-command Andrew Bonar Law.

Seldom has a political supporting role been so crucial. The Postwar Coalition 'Lloyd George can be prime minister for life if he likes.' Bonar Law's statement reflected widespread sentiment in the aftermath of war. The Conservatives, quite realistically, believed that their excellent performance in the 'coupon' election of December 1918 reflected Lloyd George's popularity with the electorate. Of course this mood of gratitude to the renegade Liberal was not to last. The Conservatives voted to leave the coalition in October 1922. But that it lasted so long owed much to the ability of Bonar Law - who became Lord Privy Seal but continued to occupy 11 Downing street - to mediate between the two wings of the coalition. As long as he was their leader, Conservatives were confident that their views were being respected in cabinet. Bonar Law's resignation from the government, but not from the Commons, on 17 March 1921, due to dangerously high blood pressure, was an acute blow to Lloyd George. As the Financial News noted, it was 'more than a nine days' wonder ... it is probably the beginning of the end of the coalition government'.

This was so in part because his successor, the aloof Austen Chamberlain, was deficient where Law excelled - at interpreting the feelings of the Tory backbenchers to the prime minister, and vice versa. But it was also true because Bonar Law, whose health improved after six months in the south of France, became critical of the policies of the government. He had voted for the Irish treaty, which gave dominion status to Ireland but allowed six counties in Ulster to remain part of the United Kingdom; but the apparent breakdown of the settlement amidst civil war in Ireland gave him severe misgivings. He also disapproved of Lloyd George's stance at Chanak, writing to both The Times and the Daily Express on 7 October 1922 that 'We cannot act alone as policeman of the world'. At the Carlton Club on 19 October the Tories voted by a hundred majority to fight the next election on their own. The finest speech of the day was delivered by Stanley Baldwin, but it was Bonar Law's rather hesitant words which had more effect. Here was the alternative prime minister without whom the Tory rebellion might have fizzled out. Bonar Law had given the premiership to Lloyd George; now he took it away.

Prime Minister Several key figures in the Conservative party - including Austen Chamberlain, Sir Robert Horne, and Lords Balfour and Birkenhead - remained loyal to Lloyd George and so refused to serve under Bonar Law. Hence he patched together what his critics referred to as a 'government of the second eleven'. He then called an election campaign, in which he judged that 'The Nation's first need, in every walk of life, is to get on with its own work, with the minimum of interference at home and disturbance abroad.' It was not the most inspiring of messages - and Lloyd George called it 'more a yawn than a policy' - but it appealed to enough electors for the Conservatives to be returned with an overall majority of 77 seats. No one can argue that Bonar Law was a great success as prime minister. His tenure was too short and his successes too few. He ratified the Irish treaty, now that violence in the north had subsided; the treaty of Sèvres was replaced by the more moderate and acceptable treaty of Lausanne; and Neville Chamberlain's Housing Act was a beneficial piece of domestic legislation.

But in international affairs the government was an impotent spectator to the French occupation of the Ruhr, and the issue of British war debts to the United States posed severe problems. Law was appalled by the deal which Chancellor Stanley Baldwin struck in Washington, expostulating that 'I would be the most accursed Prime Minister that ever held office in England if I accepted these terms'. But though he huffed and puffed, and threatened to resign, and though he even wrote an anonymous letter to The Times deploring the terms, accept them he did. His other failure, after being diagnosed with incurable cancer of the throat and being given only six months to live, was in refusing to recommend a successor to the king. It was George V who had to make the difficult choice between Lord Curzon and Stanley Baldwin. Conclusion Curzon went home from Bonar Law's funeral, in October 1923, musing that 'in days to come people would ask who he was and how he ever got there'. But such a judgement was surely sour grapes from the man whom Law had beaten to the top of the greasy pole and then refused to name as his replacement.

Law had also ended the prime-ministerial career of Asquith, a fact that does much to explain his ill-mannered quip at the funeral. Bonar Law was certainly no nonentity. His premiership may have been short and anti-climactic, but he was leader of the Conservative party for 12 momentous years, and he helped to make them an electable party after three successive defeats under his predecessor. It was under his leadership that the Tories shifted decisively, to become the party of big business rather than of the landed elite. He had pivotal and highly successful political roles during the First World War. He helped to make and unmake the premiership of Lloyd George. In addition, this man whom Lloyd George once described as 'at heart … an Orangeman' probably did more than any other mainland politician to create Northern Ireland. This was a substantial record of achievement. Bonar Law had virtues aplenty. He was modest, honest, hard-working, practical and competent, and he had an instinctive patriotism. Such qualities may not make him one of the most creative figures in our history, but they make him highly significant. Lloyd George remarked that Law was 'the most constructive objector I have ever known'.

Baldwin said the same thing: he 'did greater service in preventing the doing of things which it was wiser not to do, rather than in indicating things which ought to have been done'. This quality was a weakness which prevented Bonar Law from being a dynamic, creative prime minister; but it was a strength that made him a great team player. Perhaps he was the perfect deputy prime minister. Of Law's biographers, Robert Blake has written that for 'twelve crucial years he was a key figure in the complicated and tortuous politics of the times and no account of them would be adequate without some understanding of his personality, outlook and ideals'. His greatest success was a mastery over the House of Commons 'never surpassed and rarely equalled in modern times'. R.J.Q. Adams has written that Bonar Law 'has few peers in modern times as a party political leader'. These are sound judgements, though it should be remembered that the division apparent in the party at the Carlton Club in October 1922 was only healed after Law's death, by Stanley Baldwin. Yet some historians go further.

William Rubinstein (History Today, September 1999) judges that Law was 'arguably the most successful politician of his day', with an unequalled record of electoral successes. He was likely to have won the contest due in 1915; he scored a great victory in 1918; and he won a substantial majority in 1922. The facts are, however, that we cannot be sure about the notional election of 1915; that in 1918 the victory was secured by a coalition dominated by Lloyd George; and that in 1922, despite securing a comfortable overall majority, Bonar Law's party won only 38.2 per cent of the total vote. In other circumstances, such a level of popularity might well have spelt defeat. We must beware of extravagant judgements. Did Beaverbrook go over the top when he said that Bonar Law was 'the greatest Conservative Prime Minister since Disraeli'? Many would put him ahead of Balfour, but few would judge him greater than Salisbury. Yet there can be no gainsaying Beaverbrook's personal judgement: 'I have known one honest politician: Bonar Law. He was without guile'.

Robert Pearce is Reader in History at St Martin's College, Lancaster. History of Andrew Bonar Law - GOV.UK GOV.UK Andrew Bonar Law Conservative 1922 to 1923 Born 16 September 1858, Rexton, New Brunswick, Canada Died Political party Conservative “If I am a great man, then a good many great men of history are frauds.” Andrew Bonar Law was the Canadian-born son of a Scottish clergyman. He worked as a boy on his father’s smallholding and then, at age 12, he went to live with his late mother’s cousins, who were rich Glaswegian merchant bankers in Scotland. He later worked for the family bank while attending university night classes, which gave him an interest in politics and debating. At 27 he was making his fortune as an iron merchant but did not live extravagantly, having simple tastes. With an inheritance that gave him financial independence, Bonar Law entered politics. In 1900 he was elected Conservative MP for Glasgow Blackfriars. He had a reputation for honesty and fearlessness, and was well regarded as an effective speaker.

These qualities promoted him to Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade in 1902. He lost his seat in the 1906 Liberal landslide General Election, but he returned to represent Dulwich following a by-election later in the same year. Though hit hard by the death of his wife, he continued his political career and won the Conservative party leadership in 1911 as a compromise candidate. At the outbreak of war he offered the government the support of the Conservatives in the coalition. Working closely with the Liberals caused Bonar Law to admire David Lloyd George to such a degree that he even declined the premiership in favour of Lloyd George’s appointment. He was given senior positions in Lloyd George’s new war cabinet. His promotion reflected the great mutual trust between both leaders and made for a well-coordinated political partnership. Their coalition was re-elected by a landslide following the Armistice. Bonar Law had lost his 2 eldest sons in the war and his health deteriorated. To recover he resigned as Leader of the House and leader of his party. At the time many leading Conservatives were so charmed by Lloyd George that they were considering leaving the Conservatives to join a new party Lloyd George was planning.

Law made a decisive and stimulating speech at the Conservative Carlton Club which changed their minds and saved the Conservative party. He persuaded the Conservatives to end the coalition, and work as an independent party. Conservative withdrawal forced Lloyd George to resign and the King then invited Bonar Law to form a new administration in 1922. Law’s ‘Tranquility Manifesto’ was an attempt to allow Britain to recover from war damage. Though elected, he lasted just 209 days in office. He resigned in May 1923 due to ill health, and died of throat cancer 6 months later. Help us improve GOV.UK Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law Donald Fullarton HELENSBURGH has always prided itself that a Prime Minister came from the burgh, despite the fact that he is known as “The Unknown Prime Minister”. A Conservative, Bonar Law occupied 10 Downing Street for just 209 days in 1922-23, succeeding the much better known Liberal, David Lloyd George, who had served from 1916-22.

A man of endearing modesty — who once said “if I am a great man, then a good many great men of history are frauds” — he was a popular Prime Minister until ill health forced him to retire in May 1923, and he died six months later. The Andrew Bonar Law story began in Rexton, a small village in eastern New Brunswick, Canada, where he was born, the youngest of five children, and he also had two younger half-sisters. His father, the Rev James Law, was a Scottish Free Church minister, his mother Elizabeth a member of the Kidston family of rich merchant bankers which has played such an important part in Helensburgh’s history. Tragedy struck for the first of several times in his life when his mother died in childbirth when he was only two. He worked as a boy on his father’s smallholding until, at the age of 12, he went to live with his mother’s Kidston cousins in Helensburgh, where their family home was the now demolished Ferniegair.

Educated at Gilbertfield School, Hamilton, and for three years at the High School of Glasgow, he left school at 16 and went to work in the family merchant bank, where he remained for 11 years, and also attended Glasgow University night classes which gave him an interest in politics and debating. He learnt debating skills at the Glasgow Parliamentary Debating Association. At the age of 27 he was a man of simple tastes, a Sunday School teacher and voracious reader who enjoyed tennis, golf, chess and those great pastimes of students, billiards and darts, and served on the first committee of Helensburgh Golf Club and was one of the founding members of Helensburgh Lawn Tennis Club. At the same time he was trying to make his fortune as a partner in a Glasgow firm of iron merchants, William Jacks & Co., Mr Jacks being a neighbour in Helensburgh. For the next 14 years he prospered as a member of the ‘iron ring’, a group of financiers who bought gold and sold pig iron speculating on future price changes. In due course an inheritance from one of the Kidstons gave him financial independence, and he went into politics.

He entered parliament in 1900 at the age of 42, in the midst of the Boer War, as Conservative and Liberal Unionist MP for Glasgow Blackfriars and Hutchesontown, acquiring a reputation for honesty, fearlessness, and effective speaking — so much so that only two years later he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade. A Liberal landslide in 1906 cost him his Glasgow seat to Scotland’s first Labour MP, George Barnes, but later that year he won a by-election in Dulwich — where Maggie Thatcher now lives in retirement. Three years later came his second sad loss. Back in 1890 he had met a dark-haired, brown-eyed Dumbarton shipbroker’s daughter called Anne Pitcairn Robley, who was considered a local beauty, and he fell in love at once. They were married in Helensburgh West Free Church on March 24 1891 by the Rev William Leitch, then set off for a honeymoon in Paris. He was 32 and she was 24.

They set up home in Seabank, a house beside the now closed Clyde Centre, which had originally belonged to his aunt, Janet Kidston, but on the death of Annie’s father Harrington Robley they bought his house Kintillo (left) in Suffolk Street — then entered from West Stafford Street — and he employed famous architect William Leiper to add a billiard room. They sold the house in 1909, moving to London because the pressure of commuting was becoming too much. They had a very happy marriage, and Annie, after losing their first child stillborn, brought up a family of six children before she died suddenly after the move to London at the age of 42, collapsing after apparently recovering from a gall bladder operation. It was a shattering blow to Bonar Law, and he was distraught. Her popularity was shown when many hundreds paid their respects as the funeral procession passed by on its way from Ferniegair to the church and then the cemetery.

Nevertheless he continued his political career, with his sister Mary looking after the children, and in 1911 he won the leadership of the Conservative Party as a compromise candidate, gaining the powerful support of fellow Canadian and Daily Express owner William Maxwell Aitken, later Lord Beaverbrook. He focussed most of his attention on the tariff issue, and also furiously opposed Irish Home Rule. At the outbreak of the First World War, he offered the Liberal Government the support of his party in a coalition government, which was formed in 1915. He worked closely with the Liberals and developed such admiration for Lloyd George that he even declined the premiership in favour of him. He was given senior positions in the War Cabinet and became Chancellor of the Exchequer, working well with the leader in a successful political partnership, and this helped the coalition to be re-elected in a landslide following the Armistice. But the fates had been unkind to the Bonar Law family again, and he lost his two eldest sons fighting in the war in 1917. On April 19 his second son, Second Lieutenant Charles Law of the 2nd Battalion of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, was reported missing following the battle of Gaza.

On September 21 his eldest son, Captain James Kidston Law of the 60th Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps, died after his plane was shot down in combat in France. He wanted time to recover from these blows, and he resigned as Leader of the House and Conservative leader. But in the 1918 General Election he returned to Glasgow and was elected member for Glasgow Central. Other Conservatives were also enthralled with Lloyd George and were considering leaving to join a new party Lloyd George was planning to form. This roused Bonar Law, and he made a crucial and decisive speech at the Conservative Carlton Club which changed their minds and saved the party. He persuaded them to end the coalition, thus forcing Lloyd George to resign — whereupon King George V invited Bonar Law to form a new administration. He became Prime Minister at the age of 64 years and 37 days. He proposed what he called a ‘Tranquility Manifesto’ in an attempt to help Britain recover from war damage, but he himself, a teetotaller but heavy pipe and cigar smoker, felt increasingly unwell and was diagnosed with throat cancer, forcing his resignation in May 1923 to be succeeded by Stanley Baldwin.

The shortest serving Prime Minister of the 20th century, he died six months later on October 23, leaving estate of £35,736 — a very large sum in those days. He wanted to be buried in the family plot beside the north wall of Helensburgh Cemetery beside his wife and sons, but as he was Prime Minister the family agreed that the final resting place of his ashes should be the Nave in Westminster Abbey. The Bonar Law political influence was not quite over, however. His fourth son Richard Kidston Law followed him into politics and the Conservative Party, serving as MP for South-West Hull, and in due course became the 1st Baron Coleraine — the third creation of that title — in 1954. Comparatively unknown Andrew Bonar Law may have been — Herbert Asquith is believed to have said “It is fitting that we should have the Unknown Prime Minister by the side of the Unknown Soldier” — but he packed much into a life tinged with tragedy.

Kintillo photo by Donald Fullarton Last Updated ( Saturday, 18 June 2011 17:59 ) Trust Photo Gallery Bonar Law | prime minister of United Kingdom | Britannica.com prime minister of United Kingdom Written By: Alternative Title: Andrew Bonar Law Bonar Law Prime minister of United Kingdom Also known as Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd marquess of Salisbury Bonar Law, in full Andrew Bonar Law (born September 16, 1858, Kingston, New Brunswick , Canada —died October 30, 1923, London , England ), prime minister of Great Britain from October 23, 1922, to May 20, 1923, the first holder of that office to come from a British overseas possession. He was the leader of the Conservative Party during the periods 1911–21 and 1922–23. Bonar Law, 1919 BBC Hulton Picture Library The son of a Presbyterian minister of Ulster ancestry, Law from the age of 12 was reared by wealthy cousins in Scotland .

Leaving school at age 16, he eventually became a partner in a Glasgow firm of iron merchants. Elected to the House of Commons as a Conservative in 1900, he adhered to the party’s imperialist faction led by Joseph Chamberlain , whose illness (from 1906) left Law and Chamberlain’s son Austen as the leading advocates of a protective tariff . Late in 1911 the former prime minister Arthur James Balfour resigned as Conservative Party leader. The deadlock between the leading candidates for the succession, Austen Chamberlain and Walter Long, was broken by their withdrawal in favour of Law, a compromise candidate, who was elected unanimously on November 13. On that occasion and afterward, his chief adviser was his friend William Maxwell Aitken (Lord Beaverbrook from 1917), who later became a powerful newspaper publisher. Until the outbreak of World War I , Law was concerned primarily with the tariff question and with Irish Home Rule , which, as an Ulsterman, he furiously opposed. On May 25, 1915, he became secretary for the colonies in the wartime coalition government that he had virtually forced H.H. Asquith to lead.

He took part in the intrigues resulting in Asquith’s resignation on December 5, 1916. Asked by King George V to form a government, he recommended instead David Lloyd George , who assumed office the next day. In the new coalition, Law was leader of the House of Commons, a member of the war cabinet, and chancellor of the Exchequer , in which capacity he astutely managed war-loan and war-bond programs. Exchanging the chancellorship for the office of lord privy seal on January 10, 1919, he remained leader of the Commons until March 1921, when ill health forced him to resign his offices. In 1922 the Conservatives were angered successively by a scandal over the sale of honours, the Çanak incident (when a wholly unnecessary war with Turkey seemed imminent), and a proposal that an election be called to approve a new coalition to be headed by Lloyd George. On October 19, at a party meeting in the Carlton Club, London, Law spoke against another coalition. Lloyd George at once resigned, taking with him most of the leading Tories in the government.

Law then formed a Conservative government (“of the second eleven,” as Winston Churchill described it), which in November 1922 was approved by a comfortable majority of voters. The principal events of his premiership occurred in January 1923, when he almost resigned in dissatisfaction with Chancellor of the Exchequer Stanley Baldwin ’s settlement of the British war debt to the United States and when he broke off diplomatic relations with France because of its occupation of the Ruhr. Aware of an inoperable malignancy in his throat, he resigned in May and was succeeded by Baldwin. Learn More in these related articles: in United Kingdom Bonar Law, Prime minister • Biography & Facts Bonar Law Prime minister Andrew Bonar Law (16 September 1858 – 30 October 1923), commonly called Bonar (rhymes with honour) Law, was a British Conservative Party statesman and Prime Minister. Born in the colony of New Brunswick (now in Canada), he is the only British Prime Minister to have been born outside the British Isles. He was also the shortest-serving Prime Minister of the 20th century, spending 211 days in office.

He had a much longer tenure as Conservative Party leader, November 1911 to March 1921 and October 1922 to May 1923, where he used his business background to good advantage in promoting better organisation and efficiency. His lack of aristocratic family connections helped him broaden the base of the party to include more businessmen.Law was born to a rural preacher and his wife in New Brunswick, where he spent his early life. A few years after his mother's death in 1861, his father remarried, and in 1870 Law moved to Helensburgh, Scotland, to live with his mother's sister Janet and her family, who ran a successful merchant bank. After an education at Larchfield School (now Lomond School), a preparatory school in Hamilton and the High School of Glasgow, Law left school aged sixteen to gain a "commercial education" at the family firm. A few years later the firm was sold to the Clydesdale Bank, putting Law's career in jeopardy until his uncles loaned him the money to buy a partnership in an iron merchants firm.

Through his hard work and business acumen, the firm flourished under Law, and by the time he was thirty he was a comparatively rich man.Law first entered politics in 1897, when he was asked to be the Conservative candidate for the seats of Glasgow Bridgeton and then Glasgow Blackfriars and Hutchesontown, accepting Blackfriars. Despite a large Liberal Party majority in his seat, Law campaigned successfully for the 1900 general election and was returned to Parliament. In the House of Commons he became noted for his excellent memory and oratory, and soon gained a position on the Conservative front bench. A strong supporter of tariff reform, Law was made Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade in 1902. The issue of tariff reform split the Conservative Party, and Prime Minister Arthur Balfour resigned, prompting a general election in which the Conservative Party were forced into opposition. In opposition Law continued to argue for tariff reform, both in Parliament and within his party, largely avoiding the constitutional crisis surrounding the People's Budget in 1909.

His appointment as a Privy Councillor that year marked him out as a conservative frontrunner, and when it became clear that Arthur Balfour would resign as Leader of the Conservative Party, Law put his name forward. Despite trailing third after Walter Long and Austen Chamberlain , Law eventually won the election when the strong possibility of a draw between Long and Chamberlain that would split the party forced both to withdraw.As Leader of the Conservative Party, Law focused his attentions on two main areas; tariff reform, which he supported, and Irish Home Rule, to which he was opposed. As leader of the opposition he was in no position to make active changes, but his strong campaigning, particularly on Home Rule, turned Liberal attempts to pass the Third Home Rule Bill into a three-year struggle eventually halted by the start of the First World War. Personal facts Public Service – Andrew Bonar Law – Heroes Centre Contact Form Public Service – Andrew Bonar Law Andrew Bonar Law – Financier, Politician and the only British Prime Minister to have been born outside the British Isles.

British Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law was born 16th September 1858 in Rexton, New Brunswick (now Canada) to the Reverend James Law, a minister of the Free Church of Scotland with Scottish and Irish ancestry, and his wife Eliza Kidston Law. James Law was the minister for several isolated townships, and had bought a small farm on the Richibucto River, which Bonar helped tend along with his brothers Robert, William and John, and his sister Mary. After James’s Law wife Eliza died during childbirth in 1860, her sister Janet Kidston travelled to New Brunswick from her home in Helensburgh to look after the Law children. When James Law remarried in 1870 his new wife took over Janet’s duties, and Janet decided to return to Scotland with James & Bonar Law. At the age of 12, Law left to live with his late mother’s three male cousins – the Kidstons, who were rich merchant bankers in Glasgow. As they were all either unmarried or childless, they saw him as a substitute son and heir.

He was educated at Gilbertfield School in Hamilton (1870-1873), and then at age fourteen he transferred to the High School of Glasgow, where he showed a talent for languages, excelling in Greek, German and French. During this period he first began to play chess and eventually became an excellent amateur player, and competed with internationally renowned chess masters. Despite his excellent academic record it became obvious at Glasgow that he was better suited to business than to university, and when he was sixteen Law left school to become a clerk at Kidston & Sons. Janet’s brothers Charles, Richard and William were partners in the family merchant bank Kidston & Sons, and it was generally accepted that Law would inherit the firm, or at least play a role in its management when he was older. In 1885 the Kidson brothers decided to retire, and agreed to merge the firm with the Clydesdale Bank. The retiring brothers found him a job with William Jacks, an iron merchant (William Jacks & Co) who was pursuing a parliamentary career.

The Kidson brothers loaned Law the money to buy a partnership in Jacks’ firm, and with Jacks himself no longer playing an acting part in the company, Law effectively became the managing partner. During this period Bonar Law, attended lectures given at Glasgow University and joined the Glasgow Parliamentary Debating Association, which adhered as closely as possible to the layout of the real Parliament of the United Kingdom and undoubtedly helped Law hone the skills that would serve him so well in the political arena. In 1888 he moved out of the Kidson household and set up his own home at Seabank, East Clyde Street, Helensburgh, with his sister Mary [who had earlier come over from New Brunswick] acting as the housekeeper. Bonar Law was a man of simple tastes, a Sunday School teacher and voracious reader who enjoyed tennis, golf, chess and those great pastimes of students, billiards and darts, and served on the first committee of Helensburgh Golf Club and was one of the founding members of Helensburgh Lawn Tennis Club.

In 1890, at the age of thirty-two, Bonar Law he became engaged to Annie Pitcairn Robley, whom he married at West Free Church, Helensburgh, by the Rev. William Leitch, B.A, on 24 March 1891. Annie Pitcairn Robley was born on 2nd January 1866, the eldest daughter of Harrington Robley, a Ship’s Stores Merchant of Robley & Co.,and Isabelle Pitcairn. She had 3 brothers and 3 sisters, but her younger brother, Harrington, died in 1874 when he was 6 years old. She was eight years younger than Bonar, of a more sociable disposition and with a love of dancing. Biographers of Bonar Law speak of her beauty, her charm and the warmth and sweetness of her personality.

“Anne Pitcairn Robley, at twenty-four, with dark hair and large brown eyes and a lively manner, was considered quite a local beauty, and Bonar Law – a man whose frivolity had hitherto found its outlet in tennis and golf – seems to have fallen in love with her immediately.” They set up their home in Seabank but on the death of Annie’s father Harrington Robley they bought his house Kintillo in Suffolk Street, which they sold in 1909, moving to London, Pembrook Lodge, just off Edwardes Square in South Kensington, because the pressure of commuting was becoming too much. The marriage was to prove very happy and they had seven children. The couple had five sons and two daughters, although the first son was stillborn. The youngest son was Richard Law, [1901-1980] later Baron Coleraine, the third Charlie Law [1897 -1917], who as a soldier with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers was killed at the Second Battle of Gaza.

His eldest son, James Kidston Law [1893 -1917] a pilot with the Royal Flying Corps, was shot down and killed, Isabel Harrington Law, the eldest daughter [1896 – 1969], who married Sir Frederick Sykes and Catherine Edith Mary Law [1906 -1992] , the youngest, who married George Archibald, 1st Baron Archibald. That summer,1909, Annie became very tired, weak and unwell. They took a house at Moncton, on the Ayrshire coast for the holidays and she rested every afternoon, and tried to carry on until the children were back at school. On her return home, specialists were consulted and advised the removal of her gall-bladder. Annie had the operation, went through a convalescence and apparent recovery and then on Sunday, October 31st she collapsed and died. She was only forty two. Annie was buried in Helensburgh.

“Many hundreds came to pay their respects to the popular wife of a local hero, and the sad and stately procession stretched for some two miles from Ferniegar to the churchyard where she was laid to rest. Bonar Law said many times thereafter that he never forgot a single sad detail of that day.” Their six children aged between sixteen and four were left without a mother. Bonar’s sister, Mary Law, heroically moved in, took the household cares off his shoulders and began the task of bringing up their large family. She reluctantly agreed also to act as hostess at Pembroke Lodge, although her eldest niece Isabel gradually took over that duty. Bonar Law’s interest in politics had grown stronger as the 1890s went by, and after he inherited a very large sum on the death of one of the Kidstons, he was able to consider running for Parliament. In 1897 Law was asked to become the Conservative Party candidate for the parliamentary seat of Glasgow Bridgeton. Soon after he was offered another seat, this one in Glasgow Blackfriars and Hutchesontown, which he took instead of Glasgow Bridgeton.

Blackfriars was not a seat with high prospects attached; a working-class area, it had returned Liberal Party MPs since it was created in 1884, and the incumbent, Andrew Provand, was highly popular. The campaign was unpleasant for both sides, with anti- and pro-war campaigners fighting vociferously, but Law distinguished himself with his oratory and wit. When the results came in, Law was returned to Parliament with a majority of 1,000, overturning Provand’s majority of 381. He immediately ended his active work at William Jacks & Co (although he retained his directorship) and moved to Pembrook Lodge. He lost his seat to future Labour leader George Nicoll Barnes in the anti-Conservative landslide 1906 General Election, but he returned to represent Dulwich at a by-election later that year. Though hit hard by the death of his wife, in 1909, he continued his political career; after leaving the House of Commons at the December 1910 election, he returned as MP for Bootle at a by-election in 1911.

On the coronation of George V on 22 June 1911, Bonar Law was made a Privy Counsellor on the recommendation of the new Prime Minister and Arthur Balfour. Balfour was to become increasingly unpopular and eventually resigned the leadership of the Conservative Party. Following a deadlock between Austen Chamberlain and Walter Long, the two leadership candidates agreed to stand down in favour of Bonar Law, who became Leader as a compromise candidate. With the unanimous support of the MPs, Law became Leader of the Conservative Party despite never having sat in Cabinet. In 1921, ill health forced Bonar Law’s resignation as Conservative leader and Leader of the Commons in favour of Austen Chamberlain. 1921-2 the coalition Government had become embroiled in an air of moral and financial corruption. Austen Chamberlain resigned as Party Leader, Lloyd George resigned as Prime Minister and Bonar Law returned on 23 October 1922 in both jobs. Bonar Law was soon diagnosed with terminal throat cancer and, no longer physically able to speak in Parliament, resigned on 22 May 1923. He died on 30th October 1923.

He wanted to be buried in the family plot beside the north wall of Helensburgh Cemetery beside his wife and sons, but as he was Prime Minister the family agreed that the final resting place of his ashes should be the Nave in Westminster Abbey. Bonar Law was the shortest serving PM of the twentieth century. He is often referred to as “the unknown Prime Minister”, the name comes from a remark by Asquith at Bonar Law’s funeral, that they were burying the Unknown Prime Minister next to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.The stone in the centre of the Nave at Westminster simply reads: Andrew Bonar Law Bonar Law Common Born: 16 September 1858 in New Brunswick, Canada Died: 30 October 1923 London First entered Parliament: October 1900 Age he became PM: 64 years, 37 days Maiden Parliament Speech: 19 February 1901 Total time as PM: 209 days Andrew Bonar Law (he disliked the name Andrew and never used it) was born in Rexton; the son of the Rev. James Law (1822 - 1882), who was pastor of St.

Andrew's Presbyterian Church for 32 years from 1845 to 1877. James Law had five children, four boys and a girl. Only one of the family, Robert, remained in Rexton until his death. The old Manse in which Bonar Law was born still stands on the bank of the Richibucto River, a beautiful spot, now restored as a historic site. In 1925, the residents of Rexton dedicated a cairn to his memory. His son, Richard, came from England to unveil the memorial and give the dedicatory address. Bonar Law inherited from his mother a remarkably sweet disposition but with an element of iron in it. He was tolerant but firm in following principle and when he believed in a cause, never backed down until he had achieved his purpose. His first three years of public schooling were spent in Rexton. After the death of his mother, an aunt took Bonar to Scotland to live with her; he completed high school in Glasgow, the only education he ever received, except through experience.

His first job was that of a bookkeeper to an iron firm and when he retired in business to enter politics, he was head of the largest iron company in Scotland. He lacked the eloquence of his father, but had other qualities more valuable; good sense, tolerance, foresight, courage and principal. He was elected to the leadership of the Unionist Party in 1911, later becoming Secretary of State for the Colonies, Chancellor of the Exchequer and then Prime Minister of Great Britain. Bonar Law still holds the distinction of being the only man born outside of the British Isles to hold the office of Prime Minister. Bonar married an Englishwoman, Ms. Annie Pitcairn Robley and they had six children, four boys and two girls. Although devastated by the death of his wife in 1909, he continued his political career and won the conservative part leadership in 1911. At the outbreak of the war his party offered the government support as a coalition government. It is said that while working closely with the liberals he admired Lloyd George to such a degree that he even declined the premiership in favour of Lloyd George. He held a senior position in Lloyd Georgesï¿½s war cabinet.

This indicated the mutual trust between both leaders. This coalition was re-elected by a landslide following the Armistice. The additional devastation of the loss of two sons in the First World War made him a lonely man. Law had lost his two eldest sons in the war and his health deteriorated. To recover he resigned as Leader of the House and leader of his party. At the time many leading Conservatives were so enthralled by Lloyd George that they were considering leaving the Conservatives to join a new party Lloyd George was planning. Law made a decisive rousing speech at the Conservative Carlton Club which changed their minds and saved the Conservative party. Law persuaded the Conservatives to end the coalition, and work as an independent party. Conservative withdrawal forced Lloyd George to resign. The King then invited Law to form a new administration in 1922. For the first time since 1910 a single party with a parliamentary majority governed Britain; wartime coalition government had ended. Bonarï¿½s Conservatives won the 1922 election with a substantial majority of 344, compared to Labourï¿½s 142 and the aa5 of the divided Liberal Party.

The new government attempted to restore the peacetime economy, facing concerns over the rise of Bolshevism. Industrial unrest was also on the rise. Bonar resigned in May 1923 due to ill health, and died of throat cancer six months later. Although only being Prime Minister for 209 days, he was first elected in 1900 as a Conservative MP for Glasgow Blackfriars. A popular but now little-noted Prime Minister, Lawï¿½s funeral service took place in Westminster Abbey. He had a reputation for honesty and fearlessness, and was well regarded as an effective speaker. David Kirkwood, 1st Baron Kirkwood, PC (1872 ï¿½ 16 April 1955) was a socialist from the East End of Glasgow, Scotland, viewed as a leading figure of the Red Clydeside era. David Kirkwood said of Bonar Law. Mr Bonar Law was Prime Minister. He was one of the greatest men ever I met, very able and very sincere. He was a true House of Commons man. On one occasion we were in a hot debate. I sat for seven hours without leaving my seat.

Bonar Law was there all the time. He was looking ill and languid. Then he rose to reply. Without a note, he took up and answered seven speeches in detail. I could not believe my ears and eyes. He spoke as if he had the speeches in front of him. A week later we interrupted business for two hours with a constant barracking : "What are you going to do about unemployment?" It was a violent attack. We won some concessions. Bonar Law showed no resentment. He remained calm and unruffled. Afterwards we happened to meet face to face in the Lobby. He stopped and said: "You Clyde boys were pretty hard on me today. But it's fine to hear your Glasgow accent. It's like a sniff of the air of Scotland in the musty atmosphere of this place." Interesting Items: October 30, 1923, Tuesday Page 1, 1596 words LONDON, Oct. 30. (Associated Press). -- Andrew Bonar Law, former British Premier, died at his town house here at 2:30 this morning of a grave throat malady.

[ END OF FIRST PARAGRAPH] Quote- ï¿½If I am a great man, then a good many great men of history are fraudsï¿½ Note- A popular but now little-noted PM, Lawï¿½s funeral service took place in Westminster Abbey. Though he left school at 16, he attended evening lectures at Glasgow University. As a boy, Abraham Lincoln learnt every verse of Psalm 119 by heart: it was Law's boast that he had read Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire three times before he was old enough to vote. He was also a man who aroused strong feelings. Few statesmen have inspired a greater respect and liking, and few more anger and frustration.

Question: In which country was Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law born?
Answer: Canada